Very scarce Samuel Tilden Presidential (smear) token! Led to the contested election o

[Scrappy]

Very scarce Samuel Tilden Presidential (smear) token! Led to the contested el...

Today I dug an phenomenal token, and certainly one of my favourite finds of the year! Not only is it full of history, it's listed as scarce (SJT 1876-7 in DeWitt/Sullivan).




The backstory is even better than the find....

The election of 1876 was one that led to a contested election between Hayes and Tilden. Not only was this election one of the most disputed in American history, it led to changes in the electoral college and the compromise of 1877.

What's better is this smear token talks about fraud and income tax cheating. Sound familiar? Not much changes in 140 years!

Here's a link to some history...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_J._Tilden



A great find for me is something I've never found before, and from which I learn something new. I hope you all find this token as awesome as me!! This guy got trashed on it!!! Back then they didn't have Twitter and TV to smear one another, they minted tokens.

Also found today is some modern silver, some Indians, and an 1823 large cent I zapped. Yep, ZAPPED!


Enjoy the history!!

Steve

 

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[Evolution]

The history behind the finds is as valuable to me as the finds are. Thanks for the background story. Very interesting.

 

[peruna]

What a great find!

I pastored a church in Madison, Florida a few years ago...the county managed to hold the vote tally out until the end of the reporting time, in order to swing the state to Hayes...well before the "hanging chads" episode. What is interesting were a series of wires that were sent from Tallahassee to Hayes' headquarters...although the text is gone, most speculate that it had something to do with cutting a deal to end Reconstruction. Hayes "won" Florida and the election, Reconstruction ended, and Madison County played a small part in a BIG election. Got the info from an elderly church member whose grandfather was the county clerk in charge of the counting. Your token fits that very story to a T, as far as it being a bitter fight. Congratulations on finding your part of American history!

I wonder if our grandkids will be finding Al Gore stuff in a few years....

 

[ScubaDetector]

Looks to be a very nice old token. Congrats and thanks for the history. Your other finds are pretty good also.

 

[Scrappy]

What a great find!

I pastored a church in Madison, Florida a few years ago...the county managed to hold the vote tally out until the end of the reporting time, in order to swing the state to Hayes...well before the "hanging chads" episode. What is interesting were a series of wires that were sent from Tallahassee to Hayes' headquarters...although the text is gone, most speculate that it had something to do with cutting a deal to end Reconstruction. Hayes "won" Florida and the election, Reconstruction ended, and Madison County played a small part in a BIG election. Got the info from an elderly church member whose grandfather was the county clerk in charge of the counting. Your token fits that very story to a T, as far as it being a bitter fight. Congratulations on finding your part of American history!

I wonder if our grandkids will be finding Al Gore stuff in a few years....

Wow, very cool story. Thanks for taking the time to tell it. In today's day and age these stories can fade if they aren't passed on, or told to someone who doesn't care. I would like to think a lot of people care of stories like these.

Thanks again for the awesome story

 

[Pacivilwarluke]

Love it! Killer find, the history behind that is something else. The use of the hamlet quote on the token is very cool! Congrats!

 

[Loco-Digger]

Awesome finds and history there Steve. Love the token as well as the other 6 keeper coins. Man I need to get out soon. I was planning on it last weekend, but the new garage door was delivered at 7:30 AM on Saturday and you know what that meant. Yes I had to pull out the old one and install the new door. That took all day and then early Sunday I installed and set the spring. I did get a few hours in hunting the school where I dug the Walker, but did not find much Friday evening. The school building was just torn down a few months ago.

 

[Cal_Cobra]

Very cool piece of history, nice save!!

hh,
Brian

 

[The Dirt Pirate]

That's pretty cool.

 

[relic lover]

That's awesome. Congratulations I guess you won't be spending that at the 7-Eleven

 

[Ahab8]

That's a damn nice find buddy. If it's not going to be colonial then make it unique with a great story. Really like this one

 

[vpnavy]

 

[trapperart]

Congrats on a unique token and other nice finds, thanks for the interesting post and info

 

[tomhighland]

Congratulations on the super cool token and the other fine keepers. Thank you for the info about the token too. That was a great day you had.

 

[Scrappy]

Love it! Killer find, the history behind that is something else. The use of the hamlet quote on the token is very cool! Congrats!

Yes! I knew it was from something I've read but couldn't place it. Feels like a lifetime ago that I read it in college. Thx for looking

 

[ajaj]

Nice finds and thanks for the history lesson!

aj

 

[Trezurehunter]

Congrats on a great find Steve. Thats a piece of American History.

 

[OutdoorAdv]

Killer political smear token man! I was laughing when I saw how ruthless it was... since its scarce, I doubt the Rutherford B. Hayes campaign minted them. Otherwise you would think they would have made a LOT of them to be passed around. It makes me think that perhaps these were made by a smaller Special Interest Group who only had the funds to mint a smaller amount.

Love it! Killer find, the history behind that is something else. The use of the hamlet quote on the token is very cool! Congrats!

I knew JUST the quote you were talking about, but had no clue it was Shakespeare. I had read the "O my offense is rank and smells to heaven" and thought to myself that makes no sense. When I saw your comment though, I knew right away what you were talking about and googled it. Whats cool is in that time period Shakespeare was mainstream enough to put it on a campaign token where most literate people would understand its meaning... I doubt that would happen today... or if it did, most would have to Google it like I just did.... and we for sure had to read Hamlet in school, however too many other things have overwritten that disk space in my brain!

 

[Patriot Relics]

Great history and narrative in your post Scrappy, wish someone would mint a pair of those for our current presidential candidates...my office is rank and smells to heaven classic

 

[Scrappy]

That's a damn nice find buddy. If it's not going to be colonial then make it unique with a great story. Really like this one

Lol. The find was by a house built in 1730 so colonial was on the menu, but this is what I got served